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The first day of spring is a snowy one. (Published Friday, March 20, 2015)

Just when flowering bulbs were poking out their heads and snow shovels were getting a well-deserved rest, winter weather has come back. And on the first day of spring no less.

Rain quickly changed to snow in the D.C. metro area Friday morning. The slushy snow continued to fall through the morning before changing over to mostly rain Friday afternoon.

State police in western Maryland said the snow contributed to crashes that closed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 68 and sent several people to the hospital.

Sgt. James Pritts said the highway reopened shortly before 2 p.m. Friday after a closure that lasted about an hour. He said no deaths were reported.

Pritts said there were at least five accidents on Big Savage Mountain near Finzel. The National Weather Service said 6 inches of snow fell in nearby Frostburg.

Snowfall reports elsewhere in the region ranged from a trace at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to 6 inches in Cascade, a mountaintop community in western Maryland near the Pennsylvania border.

Schools in Loudoun, Frederick County (Md.) and Frederick County (Va.) decided to close while several other school systems announced two-hour delays.

Winter weather advisories were issued for areas north and west of Washington.

But there is a light at the end of the snowy tunnel — Saturday temperatures may reach 60 degrees.

There's no real arctic air stirring the pot here, so while it's cold enough to snow, it's not necessarily cold enough to stick, with temperatures in the 30s. While yes, we can get snow at 35 degrees, it's not likely to stay.

For the record, March snow isn't all that uncommon. Remember last year's snowy St. Patrick's Day? Yep. And we also got 3-6 inches last year on March 25.